Bulgaria risks losing €4.4 billion in EU funding under its Energy Recovery and Sustainability Plan as its parliament delays key legislative decisions due to a backlash from coal miners, which is likely to result in the European Commission withholding money from Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Fund.
The European Parliament adopted a pioneering new law to reduce methane emissions in the energy sector on Wednesday (10 April), but the oil and gas sector quickly pointed to potential implementation problems.
Germany shut down 15 coal-fired power plants over Easter to ensure that the country would meet its climate neutrality targets, with Economy Minister Robert Habeck saying that the plants were “neither necessary nor economical”.
Bulgaria’s coal-fired power plants halved their electricity output last year, while solar farms increased production by 141% compared to the previous year, according to data the country’s Energy and Water Regulatory Commission sent to parliament.
The election of a new government in Poland has enabled this Central European country to revive its ambitions in terms of energy transition and to meet European targets.
Creating a new European fund to support coal regions – the Just Transition Fund – may look like a positive step for disadvantaged areas, but its administration is complex, costly and threatens its effective use, warns a new Czech study based on interviews with officials.
Estonia plans to build a small modular reactor (SMR) to wean itself off the addiction to polluting oil shale and meet its target of producing 100% decarbonised electricity by 2030. A vote in Parliament is expected "in the first half of 2024," officials say.
Plans to build a fleet of hydrogen power plants to supplement wind turbines and solar panels are faltering, amid a budgetary squeeze and demands for cost-cutting from industry.
The new Polish government has announced its ambition to become a green player in Europe, backing a 90% greenhouse gas reduction target for 2040 and looking to pull forward the country’s coal exit.
The European Commission allocated €1.2 billion on Thursday for the transformation of Stara Zagora, Kyustendil, and Pernik in Bulgaria under the Just Transition Fund.
With Slovakia set to completely phase out coal mining and burning in the Upper Nitra region by year’s end and the EU supporting employment, entrepreneurship and the development of green resources in the area with €226 million, Slovakia is set to reduce electricity costs by over €388 million.
A record almost 2,500 fossil fuel lobbyists have been accredited for UN climate talks in Dubai, as negotiators wrestle with calls to end all new oil, gas and coal projects to curb global warming, campaign groups said Tuesday (5 December).
International lenders including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank are backing a €4-billion plan to wean North Macedonia off coal-fired power, the head of the EBRD told Reuters.
The EU struck an informal agreement on its first ever law to tackle methane emissions in the energy sector, following late-night negotiations in Brussels that will oblige importers of fossil fuels to match minimum standards from 2030.
China has unveiled a broad plan to control its methane emissions, though the world's biggest emitter of the polluting gases is offering no specific target for reducing them.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner made clear his opposition to the coalition’s flagship plan to phase out coal by 2030 in an interview on Tuesday, rejecting his government’s key pledge because Germany’s efforts would be meaningless if other EU countries were free to increase emissions under the bloc’s current rules.
Faced with another winter of scarce gas supplies, the German government is keeping its lignite coal power plants on standby for one more season.
The Bulgarian government promised coal workers – who have been blocking roads in protest – that it would not take any administrative decisions to close coal-fired power stations until 2038, leaving the matter entirely to the free market.
Bulgarian miners who are blocking highways and key roads in southern Bulgaria in a protest against the government – which officially submitted their territorial Just Transition Plans to the EU Commission on Friday – continued for the third day, with unions refusing to appear at the Council of Ministers for negotiations with Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov on Sunday.
A protest in Sofia, organised by the two unions of Bulgarian miners and energy workers from the Maritsa basin, led to an agreement with the government to guarantee the preservation of jobs for those employed in the sector.
Countries addressing a climate summit during the UN General Assembly criticised big polluters for not doing more to tackle global warming, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said time was running short thanks to the "naked greed" of fossil fuel interests.
The Polish government will set up a new Ministry of Energy Transition if the ruling camp secures its third consecutive term in power following October’s elections, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced on Sunday (3 September).
The Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw has suspended proceedings against the decision to extend the concession for the Turów mine until 2044, meaning that the mine, which has been the subject of a long-running dispute between Poland and the Czech Republic, can continue to operate unhindered for more than 20 years.
Poland is not planning a quicker end to using coal, the government said on Wednesday (30 August), criticising state-controlled utility PGE for bringing forward its carbon neutrality target by a decade to 2040.
